So I thought I was going to be able to finish these fairly soon! WRONG. Boo.Had trouble with the zipper, had to redo the whole thing. I found a VERY helpful video online showing you step by step how to sew it. (HERE)That was great, but now my zipper is lefty!! LOL I made the curve stitching on the outside longer than I would like, but I can live with it. SO I thought it was going to be smooth sailing from there. NOPE, waistband really threw me for a loop. the instructions are hard to follow. It's still all greek to me. But now that I've done it, messed it up and now have to redo it, I think it's gonna turn out damn near perfect!

So here's some pics to hold you over.

So whats happening with the waistband. I think i need to make it longer, or something. every time I tried to fold it over to topstich it & finish it, it kept warping. then I pressed it, that helped. But then it was too short! when I went to topstich it didn't cover all the ugly. Then i decided I'll zigzag stitch it to finish off the raw edge. alright it look 'ok'. I put em on, I still don't like how they fit, I need to put darts in the back yoke. So i'm gonna take off the whole waistband and cut a new one. I had tried to get the waistband to flatten out by topstitching along it, and I'm not ripping out all those seams!! So hopefully I have enough material leftover to make a new waistband. the belt loops turned out cute though.

I guess since this is my first pair of jeans, and really my first garment it's to be expected that I make big mistakes. But now all the pieces make a lot more sense to me. I think maybe even next time I wont even need the instructions. It's simple but it's not. lol

I think sometimes the pattern stuff ends up taking the most time!A Little info, I'm using the Jalie stretch pant pattern. I got my denim stretch fabric from fabric.com, I'm using neon green top stitching thread!! LOL I'm lining the pockets with left over skull fabric. This is my first attempt at making jeans, so I expect some imperfections LOL.

Today was nice out so I headed out and grabbed Daisy to do some feet cleaning. I had to get after Martha a few times for going under the electric fence gate. after putting her back in twice and yelling at her twice she realized that it wasn't going to work. Daisy was great for feet cleanings, her thrush is pretty much gone, feet are looking solid, but in need of a trim ( another sunny day needed!!) Then I brushed her. I used clicker training to brush her, since she really dislikes being brushed, I have no idea why. But now she's starting to enjoy it. Slowly weaning her off the clicks. I think she gets about 3 per side now.

Let Daisy out into the center of the paddock paradise to graze while i worked on Martha. Martha was good for leading and tying. I cleaned her front feet and had no issues. I started brushing her and she did really well. Got quite a bit of dried mud off. I worked her back feet with the carrot stick. We had a falling out back at the end of September about her back feet. So I'm kinda starting over again. She was great, didn't seem nervous or like she wanted to kick. Got all the way down to her hooves with the carrot stick. I didn't overdo it.

Then I wanted to work on backing with her, she was doing great. But then got it in her head that she wanted to take off to where Daisy was, She tried it quite a few times. and actually looked like she was getting mad about it.I just didn't let her have her way, and as soon as she stood like a normal well behaved donk I turned her loose.

then it was on to real work, picked up all the donk poo & dumped it out on the compost pile. I discovered that my old chicken coop door that has a small mesh wire on it works perfectly to screen rocks out of dirt! I( set it up against the fence with the end in the wheelbarrow next to my giant rock/dirt pile. There are quite a few rocks in there & I need rocks in a lot of spots on the property. So started screening it all by hand. Tossed a few shovel loads of dirt onto the door and used my hand to work the dirt/rock mixture down the door until all the dirt had sifted through, then pushed the rocks down into the wheelbarrow. It worked quite well. Got a half wheelbarrow load of rocks and took it to the donk shelter. I spread it out where a mat sits, then leveled it out and stuck the mat back on it.

Then I picked up lots of trash, then weed eated a bit. I'm pretty wore out! wore my chore chaps the whole time and they did awesome at keeping me clean! I love that they are so durable, a screw sticking outta the chicken coop door scraped my leg. Didn't do anything to the chaps! surely it would have ripped or tore a pair of jeans. So overall I love em! and I didn't get hot in them either.

No pics today, I don't usually take my phone out when I'm doing heavy work. Next time. Gotta get a pic of my rock sifter!! Now I'm off to start on my home made jeans!

Here are some more pics of Fred's new coat! I really am happy with how it turned out. The binding is always difficult to sew around curves, so I'm happy with how it turned out overall. I might even make him a little sweatshirt to wear under it on the extra chilly days. I need to make sure it all fits right since he's a boy pup.

Got on a roll tonight & finished Fred's coat! I think it turned out great!Can't wait to see it on him. I hope he's not swimming in it!! LOL I actually shortened it just a tad since I saw him the other day.

Been wanting to try this for awhile! with the weather being cold and yucky I convinced her that wearing a sweater is a good thing! So after 3 days of sweater wearing I decided she's ready for her first coat. I made it from a dog food bag! LOL along with some leftover neon green fleece fabric.

A little pic of waterproofing the stitches on Fred's coat, poking a bunch of holes in waterproof fabric makes it a little less waterproof LOL. So I seal the stitching to make it fully waterproof again.